Device for renovating old cabinets



Oct. 1, 1968 R. O. CLARK DEVICE FOR RENOVATING OLD CABINETS Filed Feb. 13, 1967 INVENTOR ROBERT O. CLARK JWU 644m ATTORNEY United States Patent O 3,403,953 DEVICE FOR RENOVATING OLD CABINETS Robert 0. Clark, c/o Homewood Cabinet Top Co., 17641 S. Ashland Ave., Homewood, Ill. 60430 Filed Feb. 13, 1967, Ser. No. 615,806 Claims. (Cl. 312-204) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The device comprises, among other things, a door hingedly associated with a stile that is mountable to an old cabinet frame after removing the original doors and hinge structures from the access opening of the cabinet.

This invention relates to a device for renovating cabinets and more particularly to a device which includes a door hingedly associated with a stile in such a manner that it is adaptable for mounting onto a cabinet after the old door and hinge structures thereof are removed from the cabinet.

Today there exists a great number of cabinets which must either be replaced or remodeled, but because of the exorbitant price involved with doing the same the people who wish to do something with their cabinets are not in a position to spend the required amount of money to accomplish this remodeling.

I have designed a device which enables a person to convert existing cabinets so that they appear to be new while still utilizing the old cabinets. The device although accomplishing the desired effect is far less expensive than replacing the old cabinets or resurfacing them.

My device includes at least one door which is prehinged to a stile which has the same surface finishing as the door. The stile is adaptable for mounting on the frame of an old cabinet after the door and hinge structures from the old cabinets have been removed therefrom. My device has been designed so that it is flexible in so far as it can be modified in size and mounted to the frames of old cabinets without disturbing the surface finish thereof.

It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide a new and improved means for renovating old cabinets.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a device for renovating cabinets which accomplishes the desired effect far less expensively than existing methods and devices.

It is even still a further object of this invention to provide a device for renovating old cabinets which has flexibility insofar as it can be modified in size without disturbing its surface finish while requiring a minimum of steps to accomplishing same.

Still even further, it is an object of this invention to provide a new and improved device for renovating old cabinets which can be mounted expeditously without disturbing the appearance or the surface finish thereof.

Other and further objects of my invention will become more readily apparent from reading the description in connection with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of an old cabinet in need of resurfacing;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary top view taken along a plane passing through the line 22 in FIG. 1 illustrating the manner in which the door for the cabinet illustrated in FIG. 1 is associated therewith;

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the cabinet illustrated in FIG. 1 with the original doors and hinge structures removed therefrom;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along a plane passing through the line 4-4 in FIG. 3 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a pictorial view illustrating one of my devices doors pre-hinged to a stile which has the same surface finish;

FIG. 6 is a pictorial view illustrating how my device is associated with a frame of a cabinet as illustrated in FIG. 3 to achieve the desired effect; and

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along a plane passing through a line 7-7 in FIG. 6 illustrating how the doors of my device are associated with old cabinet frames.

Referring to the drawing wherein like characters of reference illustrate corresponding parts throughout, my new and improved renovating device 10 is illustrated in its operative position in FIG. 6. It comprises at least one door 12 which is sized to fit over and cover the access opening formed by an old cabinet frame 14 after the old cabinet frame has its door and hinge structures removed as illustrated in FIG. 3. An old cabinet 16 which is to be renovated by my device is illustrated for sake of example and for sake of clarity in FIGS. l-4. However, it should be understood that all different configurations for the cabinets are contemplated for renovation with my device. Thus even though the old cabinet 16 is illustrated With doors 18 of a particular configuration that have a particular mode of association by means of certain hinges, it should be realized that my renovating device is equally adaptable to other cabinets. For instance my renovating device can be applied to a cabinet needing a single door as well as a double door.

Turning now to my renovating device as illustrated in FIG. 6 it will be seen that the doors 12 thereof are prehinged to stiles 22 by means of the hinges 24 as also illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 7. It will be noted that deep holes 26 have been formed in the doors to receive fastening members 28 that are much shorter than the depth of the holes in order that the doors 12 can be reduced in size without destroying the finish thereon by removing the hinges 24 and thereafter cutting said door across the holes. By forming the holes 26 long enough the doors which have been reduced in size can be reassembled with their hinges without the necessity of drilling holes thereon. Also the hinges 24 are shown equipped with fastening members 30 that not only fasten the hinges to the stiles 22 but also protrude through the stiles 22 to make fastening association with the frame member 14 as illustrated in FIG. 7. With this type of construction the stiles can be secured to old cabinets with a minimum number of operations without disturbing the surface finish of the device. To complete the renovation of a cabinet, pressure sensitive adhesive material 32 having the same finish as the stiles 22 and doors 12 can be appropriately applied to the sides of the cabinet. In addition to securing the stiles by means of the fastening members 30 illustrated in FIG. 7 it is contemplated that adhesive means or other means could be employed.

Summarizing my invention it should be noted that a cabinet can be renovated with a minimum number of operations to achieve the desired effect and thus achieve the same inexpensively. Also the device can be modified with a minimum number of operations for incorporation in different sized cabinet frames and thus provides the flexibility needed in renovating. Thus it will be seen with my new and improved device the desired objects of my invention will be fulfilled in a remarkably unexpected fashion.

Although I contemplate laminating Formica plastic material onto the surface of my device other suitable materials such as wood, or other plastics or the like can be employed.

Although I have shown a specific construction of my device, I am fully cognizant of the fact that many changes in the shape and contour may be made without afl ecting its operativeness, and I reserve the rights to make such changes, as I may deem convenient without departing from the spirit of my invention, or the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. A device for renovating cabinets by incorporation therein after removing the old original doors and hinge structures from the cabinet at the access opening formed by the front surface of the frame of said cabinet, comprising:

at least one door sized to fit over and cover said access opening as well as contacting and covering a portion of the front surface of the frame surrounding said opening,

a stile adaptable for attachment to said front surface in a juxtaposed position to said door and contacting and covering the remaining portion of the outer surface of said frame when said door is covering said access opening,

said stile having the same surface finishing as said door as Well as the same thickness and being hingedly associated with a respective door so that it is in alignment within the same plane with said door when said door covers said access opening and said stile is attached to said frame, and

means for attaching said stile to said frame,

whereby said door and said stile is operatively associated with said cabinet as well as covering the front surface of the frame surrounding the access opening so that the entire exposed front surface of said frame is completely covered with a unitary surface finish by said door and said stile.

2. A device, as defined in claim 1, wherein there is a pair of doors and pair of stiles associated with said cabinet.

3. A device, as defined in claim 1, wherein said means for securing said stiles to said bare cabinet frames include fastening means that protrude through said stile to secure said hinges to said stile and to secure said stile to said frame.

4. A device, as defined in claim 1, wherein holes are formed in said door to receive fastening members that attach said hinges to said door,

said holes being longer than said fastening members,

said door being reducible in size without destroying the finish thereon by removing said hinges and thereafter cutting said door across said holes.

whereby said doors can be reduced in size and can be reassembled with their hinges without the necessity of drilling new holes therein.

5. A device, as defined in claim 1, wherein said door and stile have a laminated outer surface afiixed thereto.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,916,189 7/1933 Bales 49-400 2,713,896 7/1955 Kehne 49-402 XR 3,063,768 11/1962 Moore 49-402 XR 3,065,496 11/1962 Loughlin 49-380 XR 3,183,547 5/1965 Bury 49-67 XR KENNETH DOWNEY, Primary Examiner. 

